1. Field of the invention
The present invention relates to an information input apparatus suitable for a compact device, and in particular to a portable information input apparatus for use in a portable information processing device such as a portable telephone terminal.
2. Description of the related art
There have been proposed and put into practical use various methods for inputting data to an information processing device such as a personal computer, a portable telephone set or the like. In the case of an information processing device relatively large in size like an ordinary desktop personal computer, a keyboard is often used for data entry. On the contrary, when it comes to a small information processing device like a portable telephone set, it is rather inconvenient from the viewpoint of portability to use a relatively large input apparatus like a keyboard even for entering characters.
Therefore, in such a compact size information processing device, a data entry method using a keypad and a display disposed in the main body of an apparatus has been employed in many cases. In such an information processing device, however, the keypad itself tends to have only a minimum number of keys required. Consequently, in the case where the number of characters to be used is larger than that of the keys on the keypad, a plurality of characters need to be allocated to one particular key. Therefore, some characters need to be selected and input by depressing a corresponding key the specified number of times. For example, to select a small letter “c” in the alphabet, the particular key allocated to the letters A, B and C is to be sequentially depressed to display “A”, “B”, “C”, “a”, “b”, and “c” in this order on a display unit. Then, at the time when the aimed letter “c” is displayed, the selection of one letter is completed. As a result, the entry of a plurality of letters constituting a name, an address or the like necessitates the complicated operation of the keypad, which has been a problem of notably low efficiency in data input processes.
There are two kinds of letters in the Japanese syllabary and each of them has 48 phonograms, which means there are 96 phonograms in total. Therefore, compared with English having 52 letters including the capital letters, the complexity of data entry of Japanese letters with the restricted numbers of keys on keypad is more significant.
Thus, for the compact information processing device of a certain kind, the incorporation of a wireless device such as an infrared transmission device or the like in its main body has been contrived. In such a device, merely by setting the compact information processing device in a wireless communication mode, data prepared in advance by using a computer or the similar type of device can be entered by wireless such as infrared rays or the like.
For example, in a system disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Unexamined Publication No. 9-298606, a radio base station is connected to a desktop computer by a cable and is further connected to a portable unit by radio. Accordingly, if data is entered beforehand to the desktop computer by using input means such as its keyboard or the like, then the data can be easily sent out to the portable unit by radio.
However, the wireless data entry method disclosed in the Publication No. 9-298606 is effective only under an environment where a device such as a desktop computer that is relatively large in size and easy for data entry can be used as an information input apparatus. Accordingly, in the case where new data entry is required outside an office, that is, under such an environment where a desktop computer is not available, such data needs to be created by using the concerned information processing device. This means that such data cannot be input without the above-described data entry method using a keypad and a display disposed in the main body of concerned information processing device, resulting in the difficulty of achieving an efficient operation.
Despite the recent progress in the miniaturization of an information processing device, the displaying contents on the display unit has been required wider and more complexed, and such forms of usage as on-line banking and as searching and obtaining information has been widely used. Under such circumstances, the method of performing data entry or operational designation using the keypad has been unsatisfactory in operability and thus a great obstacle to efficient information processing. Apparently, as far as data entry is concerned, an efficient operation can be performed by radio, but the information processing device itself needs to be provided with a circuitry for such wireless communications. In the case of a compact information processing device, in particular, it has been difficult to secure a space for the installation of such a circuitry.
Furthermore, in the conventional information input apparatus, it was practically impossible to enter handwritten characters by moving the cursor or to manually enter a positional coordinate, a curve, and the like.